


Aftermath

by jiminthetardis



Series: The Brink of Destruction [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Crossover, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2018-01-20 07:11:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1501394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jiminthetardis/pseuds/jiminthetardis





	Aftermath

Rupert Giles stepped into his house for the first time in almost a year. The remains of his house, more accurately. The fires that swept through the neighborhood had long since been put out; the looters had already come and gone. Not that there was much left to loot. He observed, with a tired sigh, what was left of his books. Even his TV was destroyed, exploded in the heat. No great loss that, maybe.

He was glad for the neighborhood being as empty as it was. He didn’t want to see anyone. He didn’t want anyone to see him like this. He knew he was a gruesome sight, eye still bloodshot, bruised and broken. He’d stood looking at himself in the mirror, looking at the circuitry burns his flight suit left across his chest and back as the doctors gave him the full rundown. The eye would heal. The burns he’d always have, though the pain would go away. The radiation… they’d have to run more tests. The brain damage from piloting a jaeger solo? They couldn’t say. They told him he could never pilot again. How could he, though, after that?

They’d offered him a promotion. They’d said something about his rank, as though any of that mattered. Marshal, they said. How did that sound to him? He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t remember if he’d said anything. No matter what they called him, he’d still be a broken man.

He came through it better than Ripper, though. He’d passed through the jaeger repair bays on his way out of the base. The beast of a machine was still broken, the armour torn away or corroded by Kaiju blood. The left arm was a blackened mess from where the plasma cannon had exploded. The right half of the command pod crumpled and torn open where … He’d come through better than Ripper, and Ripper had come through better than – it didn’t bear thinking about. He wondered if the jaeger would ever fight again.

He tested what was left of a chair, before settling into it and taking off his glasses. He’d always thought he’d bring Jenny here, one day after all this was finished. He’d never told her that, though. But when you drift with someone, you don’t need to tell them. They know. And you know that they know. It was an unspoken promise they carried into every battle. That there was something more than this interminable war. 

They’d known this last battle was different going in, though. The stakes had never been higher. Travers had told them going in that if they couldn’t stop this kaiju, by far the biggest yet, the military was prepared to go nuclear. The evacuation orders had already been issued in the city, but there wasn’t enough time. They had both seen what the Americans had done in San Francisco, and the Australians in Sydney, and they couldn’t let the same thing happen here. Not when they could stop it.

Angelus. Giles paused to wonder who came up with these daft names. Kaiju were demons, nothing more.

They had stood together, drifting as one, the last guardian at the gate, standing between this kaiju and half a million lives. After drifting together so long, after so many victories, so many celebrations, why did it feel like the only one that mattered was the last one. Seeing her side of the command pod torn open. Seeing her torn away from him before he could do anything to stop it. Seeing, through the drift, himself through her eyes as she was torn away. Feeling her fear. And then nothing, as Angelus ripped a hole through his heart in the shape of Jenny Calendar.

He hadn’t known what to expect as he shouldered the entire neural load. He wouldn’t have the words to describe it, even days later. He became the Ripper, and Ripper became him. And he fought. They told him after the fight lasted three hours. For three hours he burned in that fight. For three hours he’d kept Angelus from the population center, until finally pounding the kaiju to a blue and bloody finish. They told him after, how many lives he’d saved. How lucky he was to walk away from that.

But he couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t. He tried to clean his glasses, but his fingers shook, dropping them. For three hours he burned. For three hours, and every day since, he didn’t feel anything. Nothing but her absence.

And that was something he couldn’t walk away from.

There was a guitar snapped it half, leaning up against the wall, every string broken but one. Giles wrapped his fingers around the neck and basked in the familiarity. Amazing, he thought, how his muscle memory knew what to do in spite of everything that had happened. As he plucked the single string, a wailing note pierced the air. Silence swallowed it instantly.

Giles laid the guitar across his lap, put his face in his hands, and cried.


End file.
